William Cobbett was a radical politician and reformer. Born in Surrey in 1762 he was the son of a farmer and maintained a lifelong interest in farming and rural life.Between 1821 and 1832 Cobbett toured Southern England on horseback. His intention was to determine the sate of agriculture and rural matters. His observations during this time were first published in 1830 as the book Rural Rides. Cobbett died in 1835. Below is an extract from Rural Rides describing the countryside around Folkestone in the year 1823.

"Folkestone (Kent)
Monday (Noon) 1 Sept.

.......Between Hythe and Sandgate ( a village at about two miles from Hythe) I first saw the French coast. The chalk cliffs at Calais are as plain to the view as possible, and also the land whcih they tell me is near Boulogne.

Before I got to Folkstone (sic) I saw no less than eighty-four men, women and boys and girls gleaning or leasing, in a field of ten acres. The people all along here complain most bitterly of the change of times. The truth is, that the squandered millions are gone! The nation has now to suffer for this squandering. The money served to silence some; to make others bawl; to cause the good to be oppressed; to cause the bad to be exalted; to "crush the Jacobins:" and what is the result? What is the end? The end is not yet come: but as to the result thus far, go, ask the families of those farmers, who, after having, for so many years, threatened to shoot Jacobins, have, in instances not a few, shot themselves! Go, ask the Hampshire farmer, who, not many months since, actually blowed out his own brains with one of those pistols which he long carried in his Yeomanry Cavalry holsters, to be ready "to keep down the Jacobins and Radicals!" Oh , God! inscrutable are thy ways; but thou art just, and of thy justice what a complete proof have we in the case of these very Martello Towers! They were erected to keep out the Jacobin French, lest they should come and assist the Jacobin English. The loyal people of this coast were fattened by the building of them. Pitt and his loyal Cinque Ports waged interminable was against Jacobins. These towers are now used to lodge men, whose business it s to sally forth, not upon the Jacobins, but upon smugglers? Thus, after having sucked up millions of the nation's money, these loyal Cinque Ports are squeezed again: kept in order, kept down, by the very towers, which they rejoiced to see rise to keep down the Jacobins..........

Dover,
Wednesday, Sept 3, 1823 (Evening).

.......I broke off without giving an account of the country between Folkestone and Dover, which is a very interesting one in itself, and was peculiarly interesting to me on many accounts. I have often mentioned, in describing the parts of the country over which I travelled; I have often mentioned the chalk-ridge and also the sand-ridge, which I had, traced, running parallel with each other from about Farmham, in Surrey, to Sevenoaks, in Kent. Here at Folkestone, the sand-ridge tapers off in a sort of flat towards the sea. The land is like what is at Reigate, a very steep hill; a hill of full a mile high, and bending exactly in the same manner as the hill at Reigate does.The land to the south of the hill begins a poor, thin, white loam upon the chalk, soon gets to be a very rich loam upon the chalk, goes on till it mingles the chalky loam with the sandy loam, and thus it goes on down to the sea-beach, or to the edge of the cliff. It is a beautiful bed of earth here.

From the hill, you keep descending all the way to Dover, a distance of about six miles, and it is absolutley six miles of down hill. On your right , you have the lofty land which forms a series of chalk cliffs, from the top of which you look into the sea; on your left, you have ground that goes rising up from you in the same sort of way. The turnpike-road goes down the middle f a valley, each side of whch, as far as you can see, may be about a mile and a half. It is six miles long, you will remember; and here, therefore, with very little interruption, very few chasms, there are eighteen square miles of corn. It is a patch such as you very seldom see, and especially of corn so good as it is here...........

William Cobbett's Illustrated Rural Rides 1821-1832